Senator Wants Reports on Absent Employees

Looks like Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., isn't going to drop his crusade against federal employees who fail to show up for work any time soon. Now he's threatening to add a rider to every appropriations bill requiring agencies to track employee absences without leave and publish the numbers.

"If you have to publish it then we can see," Coburn told Federal News Radio. "You gotta measure it, and you gotta have a plan, and so I'll try to tack a rider on appropriations bills that says you gotta report it. Once you have to report it, management ought to know it, and if they have to report it, they're going to address the problem."